Rally-X

[Flawless]

I haven't seen a lot of these kinds of posts in here, so I figured I'd share my experience.
I have moderate (read 2 yrs) of autox experience, but had never raced dirt/snow before. Needless to say it was a blast, and it was even more fun in the car.

We just started rallyX in my region, and the car is currently setup for autox (DSP). I put on my snow tires and away I went. The car did REALLY well, and I placed ahead of many awd cars with more rally type setups. The tires did really well in the loose dirt, and the car was very predictable in general, especially considering how stiff the setup is. (Yellows & H&Rs, JBR RSB). The car was co-driven by a more experienced driver, and he placed 5th for the day, 2nd in class, 4th for FWD. I was down 3rd in class, 15th overall.

Plus, it looked totally badass doing it.

For those interested, this is a video of the course. Enjoy the boost noises.

[zenit]

Uh how has nator IL not met you yet?

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by zenit Uh how has nator IL not met you yet?

I moved to Iowa not to long ago, and have only had the mazda one season. Plus I'm a weekend warrior, not easy to drop and go on the long trips to IL. The furthest I go is the Great River Region's events near Quad Cities.

Plus believe it or not, we have almost all the big events in Iowa! I do a bit of drag racing on the side as well

[pixelNate]

Good to see more 'Speeds getting dirty. Have you seen @pragmatic's Rallycross build?

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by pixelNate Good to see more 'Speeds getting dirty. Have you seen @pragmatic's Rallycross build?

I actually looked at that back in the day (I believe before I bought my speed, or shortly thereafter).

I never had any intention of rallying the car, we didn't even HAVE rally until a few months ago. When I bought the car I put those red mud flaps on it right away and people gave me merciless hell for doing autox and having them, but not rallying, so I started rallying at our second ever event.

I would definitely say my car is not setup for rallyx, but it's still a boatload of fun! More clearance would be better (I lost a lip/fender liner during the day), but with those terras I don't rub at all. And since he got the same setup, I feel a little bit better about my purchase! I'll be honest I bought them cuz they looked cool . . .

His car has some crazy clearance going on, but I don't see any rally pix!?!?!

[pixelNate]

Are you running the 17" Terras? Also, what tires do you have wrapped around them? I can't tell from the image.

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by pixelNate Are you running the 17" Terras? Also, what tires do you have wrapped around them? I can't tell from the image.

16x7 with 215/55/16 General Artic Altimaxs. 16 is a tight squeeze with the caliper.

[pixelNate]

I assumed 17" because of the lack of clearance. Nice to know that they fit.

[Code Monkey]

Looks like a shitload of fun!

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by Code Monkey Looks like a shitload of fun!

Can confirm, was terrifying, should-be-illegal amounts of fun.

[PapaBone]

Yea, this looks pretty damn rad.

[maisonvi]

@KingOfSpades007;

[Neverlift]

Originally Posted by Flawless I would definitely say my car is not setup for rallyx, but it's still a boatload of fun!

Easy fixes for setup, lose the progressive H&R springs, and disconnect the FSB from the endlinks for rallyx.

Anything more would be a waste.

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by Neverlift Easy fixes for setup, lose the progressive H&R springs, and disconnect the FSB from the endlinks for rallyx. Anything more would be a waste.

I don't know if it's worth the effort to put the stock suspension back in, only have one more event planned for the year (need a new location).

Could I unhook the fsb endlinks on the H&Rs? would it be worth?

[Neverlift]

Originally Posted by Flawless Could I unhook the fsb endlinks on the H&Rs? would it be worth?

Yes, you can unhook the end links with the H&R's. Will need to zip tie the bar to something, and the end links. This will allow for more independent travel between the 2 front axles. Meaning, the tires should stay in contact with the ground better, more forward bite, and it will put less stress on the LSD.

[Flawless]

Should I just ziptie at the ends to the hub knuckle or something loosely so they don't drag? or to some non-moving part?

[Neverlift]

Originally Posted by Flawless Should I just ziptie at the ends to the hub knuckle or something loosely so they don't drag? or to some non-moving part?

Anywhere that will not cause issues is fine, I don't have a specific location to recommend. If you do it before you leave for the rallyx, you will notice a change in steering response and initial input, so be careful changing lanes on the interstate.

[2eatV8everyday]

I've done a few events too. Had 10x more fun doing rallycross over auto-x or drag racing.

[pixelNate]

@Flawless I just noticed the sticker on the back of your car. Why do you have an STI sticker on your Mazda? It does not compute.

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by pixelNate @Flawless I just noticed the sticker on the back of your car. Why do you have an STI sticker on your Mazda? It does not compute.

It's an "STY?" sticker like the mitsus sometimes have.

[KingOfSpades007]

Just now saw this post. I think I saw a video of your car on Youtube from a Reddit link?

There are a few guys with Civics with welded diffs who seem to have no trouble putting their power down. I have to imagine the power wasn't an issue since the MS3 has LSD...

One day I'd love to get out that way and see the car in person. There's an MS6 that I've seen twice now in stock AWD. Driver isn't dreadfully quick, but it looks like a fun time.

I think my buddy and I are going to take a shot at RX Nationals next year, so we'll be out and about to nearby national events. I'm not sure where the national championship is going to be just yet. I heard IA, NE, or IN (I think. I'm just along for the ride...)

Also, we've found the Firestone Winterforce to be a good loose ground tire. Dropped the pressures to low 30s/high 20s and probably could've gone lower. Have a second set for the hard surfaces that sees 35+psi.

Blizzaks will be tried out on deep snow and at the ice race events. If there are any near you, I suggest you try it. It's oodles of fun.

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by KingOfSpades007 Just now saw this post. I think I saw a video of your car on Youtube from a Reddit link? There are a few guys with Civics with welded diffs who seem to have no trouble putting their power down. I have to imagine the power wasn't an issue since the MS3 has LSD... One day I'd love to get out that way and see the car in person. There's an MS6 that I've seen twice now in stock AWD. Driver isn't dreadfully quick, but it looks like a fun time. I think my buddy and I are going to take a shot at RX Nationals next year, so we'll be out and about to nearby national events. I'm not sure where the national championship is going to be just yet. I heard IA, NE, or IN (I think. I'm just along for the ride...) Also, we've found the Firestone Winterforce to be a good loose ground tire. Dropped the pressures to low 30s/high 20s and probably could've gone lower. Have a second set for the hard surfaces that sees 35+psi. Blizzaks will be tried out on deep snow and at the ice race events. If there are any near you, I suggest you try it. It's oodles of fun.

Yea the LSD was pretty interesting. You'd have to come in, brake hard, then try to gun it and get the lsd to grab around the corner. I imagine that's not great for the diff haha. Power was definitely not the issue (I ran my "slow" 91 tune instead of my E tune). Our ground is usually pretty hard, so I run high pressures to prevent debeading, but this was my first time, and they were just my regular snow tires haha.

I don't think we'll have another one until february, hoping for snowcross! I might drive up to WI to try out their icecross, I think that would be a blast.

[da johnny boy]

How are the altimax artic holding up? I've most heard about the winterforces. I'm looking to get some snow tires for winter autox, ice racing, rallyx, and winter driving if possible. Its either the Altimax or the Wintercontact SI.

[Flawless]

Originally Posted by da johnny boy How are the altimax artic holding up? I've most heard about the winterforces. I'm looking to get some snow tires for winter autox, ice racing, rallyx, and winter driving if possible. Its either the Altimax or the Wintercontact SI.

Good, 100 miles a day, still tons of tread. They were great at rallyx. Nothing compared to a true gravel/dirt tire, but pretty good in terms of snow tires.

[RhINoX^]

I have done some ice racing. It's tons of fun. I run iPikes which are ok for cheap tire. More competitive guys run ig20 or ig52c.

[KingOfSpades007]

Originally Posted by da johnny boy How are the altimax artic holding up? I've most heard about the winterforces. I'm looking to get some snow tires for winter autox, ice racing, rallyx, and winter driving if possible. Its either the Altimax or the Wintercontact SI.

We have two sets of Winterforces as they're a pretty damn good tire for most surfaces. Detroit guys call them RallyForces. They have great spacing between the tread blocks, and as a result clear dirt and relatively dry mud out with ease. We ran Blizzaks at our last event which had ice that turned into a muddy soup, and some snow covered mud, and they performed very well. Others who ran Winterforces at that event weren't as happy with them.

We plan to test the Blizzaks out if ice racing happens this winter. Last season we had the Winterforces and were impressed with them. This time around the Blizzaks will hopefully give us just that little bit more of an edge. It's fun being almost as fast as the studded guys!!

[da johnny boy]

There's no hope for me to compete in the studded tire class. On studded ice racing tires, they can supposedly can pull 1.2 G.

[KingOfSpades007]

And cost near that if you don't go DIY! Mate of mine was looking at studs for his tires and saw them for $1/stud!

I like sliding around a little more than having grip for days- yes I know it's not as fast. Lol

[Flawless]

Had another race this weekend. The snow tires are NOT cutting it anymore. Need to upgrade to something with a self cleaning tread, or at least rated for mud . . . thinking I'll need a 215/65/16, but worried about that aspect ratio. I'm at 215/55/16 at the moment.

[Lion]

Tnx))

[iguardflorida]

this looks hellafuckin' fun...

[Conechaser]

I've done two events over the last month or so in my Speed 3. I'm running my G street prepped car in Prepared FWD due to my big rear bar and 17" wheels with crappy snow tires. I think I need to look at my motor mounts as I'm getting a lot of wheel tramping under power as well as some unusual chassis clunks. I'm currently either pulling my ABS fuse or pulling the plug on my wheel sensor to kill the ABS and traction control.

At the Heartland Park Challenge event I finished 3rd in PF behind the two previous National Champions (coned away 2nd place), and 2nd last Sunday at the Iowa region event at Ames, only 2 seconds behind Capesius after 9 90 second runs.